


Thank You (For Staying)

by GoddessOfDestruction



Series: Home [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016), Stranger Things - Fandom
Genre: Abusive Lonnie Byers, Because Lonnie Is an Asshole, F/M, Good Parent Jim "Chief" Hopper, Lonnie Byers Being an Asshole, Warning: N Word
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:22:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26865094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoddessOfDestruction/pseuds/GoddessOfDestruction
Summary: It was just a school project but it ended with Jonathan crying in Hopper's arms.
Relationships: Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper
Series: Home [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1436089
Comments: 3
Kudos: 35





	Thank You (For Staying)

Jonathan’s hands are smeared with black ink from the Sharpie he was just using, his fingers are sticking together because of the glue. He spares a bitter glance at the light blue cardstock set before him and heaves a sigh. On the top of the sheet, it reads in block letters ' _ Jonathan Byers' Family Tree _ '. Joyce didn’t have any photo of Lonnie lying around so she had to resort to the Yearbook which she found somewhere in the depths of her closet. Jonathan has already cut out the photos of his maternal grandparents, and, as of his paternal grandparents, well, he only saw them a handful of times and Joyce doesn’t have any photos of them. Jonathan simply writes down their names and hopes that the teacher won’t ask too many questions – not everyone has a big, happy family. 

Joyce sits at the table with Jonathan, thumbing through the pages of the book while keeping an eye on the pot on the stove. She points at the photos of a few teenagers, telling him that this and that are his schoolmates' parents. And then she sees her photo but doesn’t recognize herself at first glance. For starters, the one in the photo is Joyce  _ Horowitz _ – it’s crazy how she has forgotten that once had a maiden name and was her own person before she was a wife and mother. Also, the Joyce in that photo is young, cheeky, carefree, single, and childless; the Joyce that she finds looking back at her in the mirror is a single mother of two, working her ass off trying to make ends meet. She’s a mess, and even though she wishes  _ a lot  _ of things were different, she can’t imagine her life without Jonathan and Will. 

As she looks at her photo, she mumbles under her breath how Jonathan inherited a lot from his father and very little from her. When he’s left alone with the Yearbook, Jonathan flips the pages back to find Lonnie’s photo. No matter how hard he squints, he can't find any similarities between the two of them. He shrugs it off and focuses on the project again. He’s about to cut out his mother’s photo when he notices the name of the young man next to her photo. Joyce was so taken aback by the image of her young self that she didn’t notice anything else.

“Is this  _ Hopper _ ?” he asks, furrowing his brows. 

The name next to the photo  _ says so _ but Jonathan can’t believe that  _ that _ young man in suit and bowtie, with a thick head of hair and  _ no mustache  _ is the same Jim Hopper that he knows. 

Joyce looks back at first but then leans over the table and pulls the Yearbook closer. She chuckles and Jonathan smiles instantly – when was the last time he heard his mother laugh? 

“Yes, that’s him. I didn’t even notice him.” She’s smiling, eyes crinkling as she looks at the photo. “He was handsome but he was  _ so _ cocky, Jonathan,” She looks up at her son, still smiling. “I teased him a lot but he  _ was _ handsome.” 

“Did you already like him back then?”

Joyce purses her lips and exhales heavily through her nose. “I don’t know.” Her eyes meet Jonathan’s, “No one really knows anything at that age.” She presses a kiss onto his hair and turns her attention back to dinner.

After gluing his mother’s photo onto the cardstock, Jonathan busies himself thickening with the marker the branches of the family tree. He is, subconsciously, delaying the act of cutting out his father’s photo. The sudden sharp pain in his left arm reminds him that he doesn’t want to include his father in the family tree. Lonnie, in a drunken stupor, broke Jonathan’s arm when he was two-years-old. Jonathan will remember for the rest of his life how Lonnie's mere existence struck fear into his heart, how he hid so many times in the closet with his knees pulled against his chest and fingers in his ears to muffle out his parents’ shouts as they had yet another fight. 

Jonathan reaches for the scissors, holds the edge of the page between the blades but can't bring himself to cut the paper. Then, the sound of the roaring motor of Hopper’s jeep being cut off reaches both Jonathan’s and Joyce’s ears. 

“Take your things to the living room, please,” she gently squeezes Jonathan’s shoulder on her way to the front door. 

Joyce had asked Hopper to, on his way to her house, stop by the Wheeler’s and pick up Will who had spent the entire afternoon playing with his little friends. While Hopper unloads the boy’s bike from the backseat of the jeep, Will hops out of the Blazer and runs at full tilt towards Joyce who is leaning against the doorframe. 

“Hi, Mom.”

Joyce smiles at the sight of Will wearing Hopper’s sheriff hat, but she can barely see his eyes so she pulls it up a little bit – Will possessively holds onto the brim of the hat. “Hi, baby.”

“I won the campaign!” he tells her, beaming.

“That’s great,” Joyce replies with the same level of excitement as her son’s but has no idea of what he’s referring to. 

Will then disappears out of her sight, tailing his brother, curious about what he’s doing. 

Hopper walks up to the door at a slow pace. He props up Will’s bicycle against one of the porch’s columns and then hands Joyce her son’s schoolbag. 

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” he casts a quick look behind her. The house is always a mess – piles of laundry to be folded, meals waiting to be cooked, boys to be tended to. “Do you need help?”

She crinkles her nose, “I really want to take a bath?”

“Sure.” He hugs her from behind and kisses her cheek, “I’ll keep an eye on the boys, and on dinner, and on what else is needed.”

Jonathan steals a glance at them, notices the short but sweet display of affection. Though he was younger than he is now, Jonathan can firmly affirm that he never saw Lonnie do such a thing, or anything similar, to Joyce.

“Hop, come look!” Will excitedly calls, pointing at the Yearbook. Unlike his mother or his brother, Will immediately saw Hopper’s photo.

“Whatcha got there, kid?” Hopper puts his hands on Will’s shoulders and looks over him at whatever he’s pointing at.

Will tilts his head back to look at the man, “That’s you, right?”

“That’s me some odd-years younger.” He takes a seat on the couch, unconsciously pulling Will along and sitting him on his lap. “Haven’t seen half of these people in years.”

Hopper is about to pull the Yearbook closer when Will pipes up, “Where’s Mom’s photo?”

“It’s for my family tree project,” Jonathan explains, pointing at the cardstock pushed to the side of the coffee table. 

“Oh, we’ll let you work in peace then,” Hopper pats Jonathan’s shoulder as he stands up, putting Will down on his feet. “Help me out with dinner, Sheriff.”

Jonathan does zero progress on his work because he’s listening in on what’s happening in the kitchen. Will is Hopper’s little shadow, following him anywhere he goes, telling him all about the  _ Dungeons & Dragons  _ game he and his friends played – Hopper nods and pretends to understand every word that comes out of the kid’s mouth. Lonnie would have given up listening to him before he had even finished a sentence. He would have told Will that he should be playing sports out in the street and that he needed to find better friends – not the ‘Frogface’ and the ‘Nigger’ upper-class boys from Maple Street. 

Hopper comes to discreetly take a look at Jonathan every now and then, to make sure he’s doing okay. He quickly realizes that something’s off but he can’t quite put his finger on it. When he asks the boys to set the table, Hopper notices that Jonathan won’t stop staring at him. He asks him if everything is ok; Jonathan nods but a few seconds later he’s stealing glances at Hopper again.

“Dinner’s ready?” Joyce asks as she enters the kitchen, hair still slightly damp.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Hopper replies.

She claps her hands twice, getting her sons’ attention, “Go wash your hands then, boys.”

* * *

Joyce is in the bathroom with Will, helping him take a bath; she’s basically sitting on the closed toilet lid and giving him instructions on how to  _ properly _ wash himself. Hopper is on the couch watching  _ MASH _ and Jonathan is sitting on the floor, staring with a vacant look at his school project. He's conflicted; he hates his father but at Sunday school he's taught that children should always like and respect their parents. He doesn't want to put his father in the family tree because he's not around, but he's still his father and that can't be erased, no matter how much he wishes for it.

"It's just a school project, kid." Hopper only looks away from the TV when he feels Jonathan's gaze on him. "If you don't want to put Lonnie in the family tree, then don't."

"But he's my Dad –"

"He gave you half of his genes and a surname. That's not being a Dad." He grunts as he slowly slides down the couch and takes a seat on the floor next to Jonathan. "He walked out on your mother, on you and on your brother. He doesn't visit you, doesn't even give you a call.  _ Fuck _ , he doesn't even pay alimony, Jonathan. I'm not trying to turn you against your father but..." he heaves a sigh.

"I hate him," Jonathan confesses with tears brewing in his eyes. "Always have." Then he looks up at Hopper, "But he's my Dad. I'm supposed to like him –"

"You are the only one who decides how much someone means to you. It doesn't matter if they are a relative, a friend, or if they were once nice to you. Liking or disliking someone is your choice and no one else's."

Jonathan throws himself into Hopper's embrace, hiding his face in the crook of his neck as he sobs uncontrollably.

"If I – if I – if I don't p– put him in the – in the f– f–"

"It's just a school project, buddy," Hopper whispers, running his hand up and down his back. "Your teacher knows that your parents are divorced. She won't ask questions and she won't give you a bad grade either."

"I wish you we–" he sobs harder.

_ I wish you were my Dad. _

Hopper can barely breathe. His heart pounds in his chest and it hurts  _ so much _ . He blinks away the tears pooling in his eyes and hugs Jonathan tighter. How shitty of a father one has to be for his child to cling to another man's neck and wish he was their father instead?

"I wish I was," Hopper manages to say.

_ I wish I was your Dad. _

_ I wish you and your brother and your mother had never gone through all the shit you did. _

Joyce and Will step out of the bathroom but neither Hopper nor Jonathan hear them. But Joyce hears Jonathan crying. She ushers Will to his bedroom and tells him to get dressed, that she’ll check on him in a while, and crosses the hallway in big, hurried steps. She finds Hopper sitting on the floor with Jonathan in his lap, cradling him as if he was a small child. Joyce stops dead in her tracks, the words die out in her throat. She resists the impulse to rush to her son and pull him into her arms and comfort him herself. His crying fills the room and tears at her heart.

“Please, don’t–” Jonathan’s words are again cut off by a loud, gross sob.

“It’s okay,” Hopper presses a kiss to the top of Jonathan’s head and then whispers into his hair, “I’m here.”

“Please, don’t leave us.  _ Please _ .”

“I won’t. I won’t leave.”

Joyce inhales sharply and holds back her tears. She has no idea what led Jonathan to cry like this but it doesn’t matter really; hearing him cry, for whatever reason it is, hurts. Hearing him  _ pleading _ Hopper not to leave them hurts even more. It was the stupid school project that brought those things up, she’s sure of it. She takes a deep breath and returns to Will, feeling that it’d be wrong to meddle in. 

Will is already fast asleep by the time Jonathan’s crying eventually dies out. Hopper looks down and notices that the boy is almost asleep. In a Herculean move, he pushes himself off of the floor while carrying Jonathan in arms. He lies him down on his bed and is untying his shoelaces when Joyce shows up.

“I got it,” she whispers, starting to slowly strip off her son’s clothes in order to change him into his pajamas.

Hopper takes a few steps back but doesn’t leave the bedroom. Joyce casts a look at him and can tell that he is distressed, staring blankly at Jonathan.

The will to drive all the way to Indianapolis and break Lonnie’s face is not as big as Hopper expected. If he was younger and more reckless, he’d already be at his doorstep, ready to beat him up senselessly as soon as he’d open the door. But, as he grew older, he learned to pick his fights and he knows that Lonnie is just not worth it. Those who matter to him are right there. So he's not going anywhere, not tonight, or ever. 

“Thank you,” Joyce says in a low voice, walking up to Hopper. “For staying.”

“Thank you for letting me stay.”

**Author's Note:**

> I always think that I write Hopper a little too OOC but we all know that he's a big teddy bear who just doesn't know how properly express his feelings.


End file.
